Restored historic space in downtown Wilmington is giving a North American division of a German company room to grow.

Kesseböhmer USA Inc., a leading manufacturer of high-end storage solutions for the kitchen industry, has been in Wilmington since about 2007, moving recently from Barclay Commons to 106 Market St. The firm's parent company was founded in Germany and has a presence in 80 countries.

"We're happy to be downtown. We have been here now for 12 years in Wilmington, but we moved our headquarters downtown because of the environment and the excitement to be here," said David Ivey, managing director of Kesseböhmer USA Inc., during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday at the new office space.

Ivey added, "We are a 60-plus-year-old company and growing. We have over 3,000 employees [worldwide], but Wilmington is a focal point for us . . . We're going to grow and we're going to bring new jobs here for sure; if we get certain businesses up and running, we'll even bring factory jobs, we'll bring executive jobs.

"I think we'll bring a lot to Wilmington. So we're excited about the space from an historical perspective, but it gives us room to grow. It's over 5,000 square feet and we're going to fill it."

Developer James Goodnight, who owns several downtown Wilmington properties, purchased the buildings at 1 and 9 S. Front St. and has been renovating each floor, relocating the main building entrance to Market Street (resulting in the 106 Market St. address).

At the event Thursday, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said, "This is a phenomenal space that continues with the vision of what we have for revitalization efforts in downtown Wilmington."

In addition to Kesseböhmer USA Inc., downtown Wilmington is also home to an office of the store fixture division of Kessebohmer that has also been growing. That division, Kesseböhmer Retail Merchandising, has been sharing the new office space with Kesseböhmer USA Inc. as its office at 130 N. Front St. is repaired because of Hurricane Florence damage.